Once again and continuing a long tradition here at the Force, I am happy to share the latest turnover rates by industry, provided to us by CompData Surveys. The information in the following charts - both voluntary and total turnover rates - has been drawn from CompData's 2013 edition of their annual BenchmarkPro Survey, which features data submitted by 40,000 organizations.

And a little historic perspective, going back to the first data set we featured here in 2008.

Our special thanks, once again, go out to our friends at CompData Surveys for sharing this information.

Note to Readers: A couple of errors were discovered in the CompData numbers reflected in the above tables following the publication of this post early this morning - they have all now been corrected. Apologies for any inconveniences this may have caused.

Continuing a long tradition here at the Force, I am happy to share the latest turnover rates by industry, provided to us by CompData Surveys and drawn from their 2012 BenchmarkPro Survey, which features data submitted by nearly 34,000 organizations across the country.

The table below, which summarizes the "All Industries" voluntary and total turnover from 2008 to present, shows rates beginning to inch up after trending downward for the past several years.

Our special thanks, once again, go out our friends at CompData Surveys for sharing this information with us!

We all want happiness, man, that’s the scope of our lives, to be joyful, connected and just happy, man. But as most of us know, organizations have limited resources to generate happy happy for the unhappy few. What I mean is, if you’re already a whiner, or a belly aching windbag of toxic energy, no program, article, foosball table or casual Friday is going unlock your misery. Happiness at work is entirely different than happiness from our workplace. Sure, having free soda, bonus checks and a great health plan can generate momentary happiness, but if you’re prone to harshing everyone’s mellow none of this is going to matter, you're just going to continue to rain on everyone’s parade.

If you want happiness in the workplace, hire people that are happy for crying out loud, and give them some freedom. Avoid weaponizing toxic people by giving them power over others, making them the overlords of the good and happy people.

Can we impact employee happiness in the workplace? To what extent is happiness something we hire for? Or is it on us to ensure the conditions for happiness are in place - and, if so, what are they?

What's your take?

For those who don't know him, Carr was the closing keynote at the WorldatWork Total Rewards conference a few years back. My local association, Twin Cities Compensation Network, also brought him in to keynote our annual meeting not long ago. If you're looking for a high-energy, entertaining speaker on engagement in the workplace, be sure and check him out!

I'm joining up with my Compensation Cafe colleagues Margaret O'Hanlon and Dan Walter to present a session we're particularly excited about - Everything You Do is Communication... How to Do Everything Better! - at 1:30 Monday afternoon. Come and join us if you're attending the conference.

Later on Monday, Margaret and I will be manning the WorldatWork booth (#518) from 4:45 to 5:05. Stop by to chat if you can.

In the middle of this busy time of year - with days when it's tough just to keep your head above water - I've been thinking about what it takes to get better at the work we do, beyond the simple act of just continuing to crank it out.

And then I ran into Seth Godin's recent post on creating competitive advantage, in which he chides us for thinking we create advantage simply by staying at work longer or returning emails faster than our cohorts. Instead, he claims, we succeed because (and only because)...

... you confronted and overcame anxiety and the lizard brain better than anyone else. Perhaps because you overcame inertia and actually got significantly better at your craft, even when it was uncomfortable because you were risking failure. When you increase your discernment, maximize your awareness of the available options and then go ahead and ship work that scares others... that's when you succeed.

More time on the problem isn't the way. More guts is. When you expose yourself to the opportunities that scare you, you create something scarce, something others won't do.

As has become tradition here, I am pleased to share the latest turnover rates by industry, provided to us by CompData Surveys and drawn from there 2011 BenchmarkPro survey.

As our economic problems continue and unemployment remains high, these turnover rates have slowly declined over the past few years. This trend can be seen in the chart below, which summarizes "all industries" voluntary and total turnover from 2008 to the present.

Our special thanks go out once again to the folks at CompData Surveys for sharing this information with us!

Readers may recall my post immediately following this year's WorldatWork Total Rewards conference, highlighting Kenexa's great There's No Crying in Compensation button - wondering how I managed to miss it!

In response, my friends at Kenexa sent me a few of the other buttons they featured at the conference - and I wanted to take this opportunity to share one more of my favorites with you.

A quick peek through my blog archives a few days ago reminded me that I began my blogging journey over Memorial Day weekend in 2006 - so Compensation Force has just celebrated its five year anniversary!

Many thanks to all who have read, commented and provided encouragement over the years!

Chris's latest effort is an ebook titled Do Amazing Things in 2011, featuring a collection of short, actionable ideas from 21 of HR's leading thinkers and doers. (And I am honored to have had a chance to contribute.)

About The Author

More Info HereCompensation consultant Ann Bares is the Managing Partner of Altura Consulting Group. Ann has more than 20 years of experience consulting with organizations in the areas of compensation and performance management.